Original plans, drawn up by French consultant Aeroports de Paris, had called for the construction of a two-storey terminal building with capacity for 8 million passengers a year, 11 aircraft bays, six remote bays and a 7,000-square-metre shopping area. Bids for the construction package were submitted by international contractors last year, following which three groups of companies completed technical clarifications for the estimated AED 1,500 million ($408 million) contract. They were: a South African/Japanese/local joint venture of Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East), Takenaka Corporationand Al-Habtoor Engineering Enterprises; Australia's Multiplex Construction, with the US' Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR); and Phillipp Holzman Abu Dhabi, with the local Al-Hamed Development & Construction.

Sources close to the project say that responsibility for the terminal expansion may now be handed to the Department of Civil Aviation from the present client, the Works Department.

Plans to build a second runway at the airport are going ahead, however. A local/South African team of Al-Jaber Transport & General Contracting Establishmentwith Grinaker-LTA, which was the second lowest of five bidders for the work at AED 399 million ($108 million), is the frontrunner for the contract. The package entails the construction of a 4,100-metre-long runway, parallel and link taxiways, navigational aids and associated works. The UK's Halcrowis the consultant (MEED 31:10:03).